Splitting expenses, concretely

Methods you can actually use, with the math worked through and the awkward cases covered. No generalities: what happens when one person fronts everything, when incomes are far apart, or when half the trip was paid in another currency.

• How to split expenses with friends without falling out

  Working out "who owes what", step by step on a four-person weekend. The four ways to split a cost, and why netting the debts turns eleven payments into three.

• Splitting trip costs with friends: the complete method

  Before, during, after. The deposit one person fronts months ahead, payments in foreign currency, the excursions not everyone joins, and closing the books.

• Shared house expenses: rent, utilities and groceries

  What genuinely gets shared, what should be split by room size, and the monthly routine that keeps money conversations from being awkward.

• Money as a couple: four methods and what they actually do

  Fifty-fifty, proportional to income, one shared pot or separate accounts. With numbers, on a couple earning $3,200 and $4,800 a month.